1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of marking of traffic dividing lines and other directional data upon the surface or pavement on streets and highways, by applying on and securing prefabricated road marking tape material to said pavement, and of providing a marked road thereby. More particularly, this invention is concerned with a new and advantageous apparatus or arrangement adapted to be driven over a road surface along a given path as defined by the marking line to be formed for laying down and pressing said tape material on said surface to form the marking line.
2. The Prior Art
This art is a well worked one and widely known. A variety of arrangements had been heretofore proposed therefor, such as the mechanisms and the machines described in the prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,007,838, 3,155,564 and 3,235,436, of same applicant. Such machines were subject to several limitations, more particularly concerning their cost, weight and scarce ability to be driven at a desirable speed along the necessary path. These and other considerations, together with the availability of more efficient tape materials and of procedures for forming a primer layer upon the road pavement for receiving and permanently securing the material, have promoted substantial improvements in this art.
A substantial improvement comprises providing an apparatus for applying traffic-regulating tape indicia to road surfaces, the apparatus consisting of the combination of a service unit including a motor-van (in the broadest meaning of the term) adapted to be driven over a road surface along a given path and containing means for transportation and supplying of tape material, of compounds and substances as well as sources of energy necessary for forming the indicia, and preferably also for preliminarily forming on the road surface a primer layer on which the tape material is then laid down, and of a tape material applicator subassembly including devices for laying down said tape material on said surface, preferably also for forming said primer layer on said surface and then laying down the tape material thereon, said subassembly being connected to and operatively associated with said service unit.
Arrangements, subassemblies and devices as above have been described in the published French Patent Nos. 72.27216, 73.14075 and 73.32566 of same applicant. (U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 275,427, filed July 26, 1972, Ser. No. 350,830, filed Apr. 13, 1973 and No. 397,245, filed Sept. 14, 1973). These arrangements have been satisfyingly produced and made use of. Said multiple units have however been subject to some serious objections; particularly they cannot provide the most desirable flexibility of service in the widest range of operation from forming at a substantial speed indicia along highways to provide intricate marking patterns at crossings, parking lanes and the like. A serious limitation consists in the fact that the regular laying down of the tape material (including the preformation of the primer layer, if any) on the precise path defined by the marking line to be formed, (said path being visualized, according to the art, by a trace consisting of a sequence of marks chalked on the road surface, by a string or a ribbon located thereon, or also by the remaining parts of a not completely obliterated preceedingly formed indicium, and so on), depends only upon the extreme attention and of the skill of the driver of the service unit who has also the responsibility of maintaining the proper operational speed and to act on the various controls of the motor-van.
It is therefore object of this invention to provide a new and advantageous apparatus and arrangement which are not subject to the above and other limitations and by which a most efficient operation can be performed in the most various occurrences to meet the widely variable marking requirements.